Question

What do you call a program that both translates and executes the instructions in a high-level language program?

Short answer

Answer: The program that translates and executes instructions in a high-level language is called an Interpreter. An interpreter reads the high-level language program line by line, transforms it into lower-level machine code, and then immediately executes that machine code. This process is repeated for each line of the code until the end of the program. A well-known example of an interpreted language is Python.

Step-by-step solution

Define the term

A program that translates and executes instructions in a high-level language is called an Interpreter.

Explain the working of an interpreter

An interpreter reads the high-level language program line by line, transforms it into a lower-level machine code, and then immediately executes that machine code. This process is repeated for each line of the code until the end of the program. The main difference between an interpreter and a compiler is that the interpreter translates and executes the code at the same time, while a compiler translates the entire code all at once before executing it.

Provide an example

A well-known example of an interpreted language is Python. Python's interpreter reads the Python scripts line by line and executes the code as it goes along. This is usually slower than compiled languages since the interpreter spends more time on translation and execution, but it can offer more flexibility and ease of use for developers.